First edition, 2025

Database Design Book

Learn how to get from business requirements to a database schema

The goal of this book is to help you get from a vague idea of what you need to implement (e.g.: “I need to build a website to manage schedule and instructor appointments for our gym”), to the comprehensive definition of database tables.

To achieve the goal, first we show how to build a structured list of anchors, attributes and links. To understand the business requirements, we spell out what each element does, using carefully designed formalized sentences. After that, we can build a physical model based on the logical model, in a straightforward way.

Book length: 137 pages, ~30.000 words. Available in ebook-friendly PDF format. See table of contents and PDF chapter excerpts.

Extra materials: "Database Design for Google Calendar: a tutorial"; "Historized attributes: systematic table design"; "Many yes/no attributes: table design study".

Database Design Book cover

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Kindle-friendly EPUB format available in May 2025. More database design material to follow for the subscribers.

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    My name is Alexey Makhotkin, I’ve been working with databases for more than 25 years in various roles: software engineer, database administrator, team lead, head of software engineering. I've built dozens of schemas along the years.


    A few years ago I started the “Minimal Modeling” substack: https://minimalmodeling.substack.com/, to summarize what I’ve learned along the way. This book is another step in that direction.

    VAT ID: NL005240201B52